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Original poster

Would you live in a Gated Community?

56 replies

Tinker · 04/04/2004 16:45

Spotted this whilst flicking through the ST today. People choosing to live in 'Gated Communtities' - "Executive homes" by the look of them, with big gates on the outside to stop all the yobbos. So, would you choose to live in a ghetto?

OP posts:
kiwisbird · 04/04/2004 22:13

CD we have to move to Lincs Ocado don't deliver but sussed there is is Waitrose in Newark...
DH doesn't understand

GeorginaA · 04/04/2004 22:14

Not even as an old lady (sorry, just seen your addition, CD!) - again I think it puts you in an even more vunerable position and encourages you to be housebound.

expatkat · 04/04/2004 22:29

Would love to know how American gated communities were presented in documentary as everything I ever see about America in the UK is at least a little distorted, & viewers seem happy to believe any pleasingly vicious or vapid generalizations offered to them. Basically, gated communities are most frequently inhabited by retirees with some money. They want to live somewhere where the lawn is cut & someone is at the ready to fix whatever breaks down. It's a way to own property but not be responsible for its maintenance. (And you pay a fee for this continued maintenance.) I suppose there may be some aspect of "protection" but it's not what one thinks of first when one thinks of a suburban American "gated community."

And even it it were about protection, think about my 70-yr-old father who is looking into moving into one. He & my mother were burgled twice, once when they were at home. And he was mugged in front of my house in London, wrestled to the ground in broad daylight. He's 70 & wants to be left alone. Give him a break.

I know this thread started as a simply questionwould you live in one, yes or nobut as Hula said, the language used imposes an immediate "right" answer.

eddm · 04/04/2004 22:58

Interested to hear your POV Expatkat. I had thought they might have something to do with white suburban flight from the perceived danger of the inner-cities; do many Black or Asian people live in gated communities in the US, then?

expatkat · 04/04/2004 23:02

wealthy ones, yes, eddm

expatkat · 04/04/2004 23:15

Come to think of it, the only 3 people I know personally who live in a gated community are black or Asian (Asian in the American senseKorean, Chinese etc.), including my auntthe only member of my family to have moved into one already--who is half black and half Asian.

mummytojames · 04/04/2004 23:17

if it was council then yes private then no theres no way i would pay that kind of money to live in one because they put up a gate and double the price and plus im used to having people around at all times i think i would feel more nervous if there wasnt stange huh

ks · 04/04/2004 23:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
Tinker · 05/04/2004 00:37

Think they would create a real false sense of security. Don't think these are the same as old people's residences with wardens. Have been burgled 3 times whilst living alone and my mother was mugged on her own doorstep but the thought of them still makes me shudder. Plus, your delivery man can't deliver unless you give him the entry code

OP posts:
handlemecarefully · 05/04/2004 08:44

I personally wouldn't have a problem with it....my attitude is 'so what?'

suedonim · 05/04/2004 13:55

Well, if it's good enough for the Prime Minister.....

Tortington · 05/04/2004 19:52

yes as long as i could keep all the people who earned more than 25k on the other side ...watching them with security cameras in case they eyed up my M reg Astra. got to keep an eye on those rich people, they might want my asda clothes or my buy one get one free sofas OMG what if they get hold of my bank details and pay off my overdraft it would be a f*ckin nightmare. keep the rich scumbags out

CountessDracula · 05/04/2004 19:53

Custy!!! Where have you been? Missed you

CountessDracula · 05/04/2004 19:54

ps what happens if you get a pay rise, do you get kicked out of your community?

eddm · 05/04/2004 20:13

LOL Custardo!

Tortington · 06/04/2004 06:16

good point CD, you would only get kicked out if you PAID your rent

FairyMum · 06/04/2004 07:18

I think those gated communities can look quite sterile. What if you don't get on with the people who live with behind the gate with you? I think I would feel slightly locked away and I don't think it's that much safer. Doesn't it just signal that you have got something to protect and it might be worth breaking in ?

grumpyzebra · 06/04/2004 07:47

My cousin lives in a gated community in California -- it was the only place she could afford to buy (honest). Small flat, I think...She hates it, but other considerations came first.
And one of the judges at my dad's court in California moved to live behind a gated community -- not because she's rich or snooty (she's black, very left-wing and quite witty, in fact!), but because anti-abortionists were picketing outside all the judge's houses and sending hatemail (trespassing cases... long story), and this particular judge felt, as a single woman living on her own, quite vulnerable.
So it's not all rich toffs, even in the USA.

bran · 06/04/2004 12:11

I think there are degrees of gatedness (is that a word). For instance if you lived in a single house with a garden and your car was regularly stolen from the driveway, the local teenagers used your garden bench to hang out on or therer were regular burgleries then obviously you would beef up security to keep them out. But if the same house had an upstairs and a downstairs flat and security is increased to keep intruders out, is that a gated community? Or is it just two households with a common problem?

Personally, I wouldn't live in an American style gated community, I think I would find them claustrophobic, but the only problem I would have with them is when the completely detach themselves from their surroundings (eg. stories about some gated communities not wanting to pay local taxes because they have their own security etc). In London I think even gated communities can have a positive effect in regenerating run-down areas as the inhabitants will still interact at the local level, even if it's only walking to the station or going to the newsagents, and they have a vested interest in getting the whole area improved, even if it's only to increase their property prices.

Blu · 06/04/2004 12:37

The one up the road from us is EXACTLY as CD describes it: developers buying up cheap land and then selling at high prices by persuading people that they are in an exclusive up-market environment by gating it.

The residents (who bought because of good views over the park) are now petitioning to have the ducks in the pond culled because they don't like the noise they make in the morning!!!

I wouldn't live in one because I wouldn't want to feel that i had to lock the rest of the world out, streets are public places in my view of the world. Also I haven't seen one where I liked the style of houses.

kiwisbird · 06/04/2004 12:47

and the ones we saw... gates do not come cheap, the difference between an exec 4 bdr detached house next to the gated estate with the fake lake was about 35K!!! And that was for a back garden that backed on to a tiny lake... no good for kids at all, but they call it a family paradise, all houses are mews townhouse styles, no privacy all access is shared.
I could not deal with that, its too Big Brother (Orwellian sense not Jade Goody sense)

bran · 06/04/2004 14:25

at the ducks in the morning blu. The apartment complex that I live in has an ornamental pond and fountain that attracts noisy drunks at chucking out time on hot summer nights - do you think a petition to have them culled would have any effect?

dinosaur · 06/04/2004 14:27

ROFL Bran! Worth a try! Or maybe you could just water-pistol them?

bran · 06/04/2004 16:09

Funny during the daytime dinosaur, but in the early hours of the morning less so, then I can start to see the attraction of gates. I think I'll suggest to management that they add blue dye to the water - it won't keep the drunks away but at least when I'm lying awake I'll be chuckling thinking about what they'll look like the next day.

Which gives me another thought about gated communities - our development can't have gates because the council insist on public access to the riverside, which is how it should be. But because we live in flats the grounds are our garden and I can sympathise with people who want to have gates because it seems that you can either have pleasant surroundings and school kids yelling under your window in the afternoon and drunks at night time or you can make the surroundings unpleasant so that people just pass through without stopping.

dinosaur · 06/04/2004 16:10

Sorry Bran - it was just the analogy with the ducks that made me laugh - I can imagine it is really annoying.